Quick notes: Visa Gods | Indian inaction...

• Visa Gods and Brain Drain: Why the Indian govt and media get all worked up about declining opportunities for Indian out-migration has never made sense.
  
  In the early 2000s, when India’s rise was viewed in a positive light, many had hoped that like the East Asian communities in the US — Japanese, Koreans and Chinese — Indians in the US would also return home, invest in India and contribute to the home country’s development. However, for a variety of reasons, this expectation is yet to be realised.
  
  It would be interesting to see how many of those who attended Modi’s rallies abroad have decided to return home to contribute to India’s “atmanirbharata”. . . . Taxing the Brain Drain.



• Chabahar port rail project: Iran drops India after inking $400 billion China deal. That China pulled the strings behind the scene cannot be doubted. The possibility of Iran leasing out the Chabahar port to China at a later date cannot be ruled out. If that happens, China would have extended its strategic reach to the Pakistan-Iran coast.
  
  Act quickly: India dragged its feet on building the rail link from Chabahar to Zahedan. First, the delays were over contract disagreements, then the fear of US sanctions, and later, after the US provided a “carve-out” to India on the port and the rail link, the difficulty under the sanctions regime in finding international suppliers for material... From Nepal to Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Iran, Delhi has made commitments on building power projects, highways, railways, and other infrastructure. Each proceeds slowly or not at all. The Pancheshwar Dam project in Nepal, for instance, has been hanging fire since 1991.



• Dr Bharat Karnad on India's inaction:
  
  Commercial satellite imagery reportedly shows the LAC has shifted 12 to 15 kms in Depsang, 1 km in Galwan, 2 to 4 kms in Gogra and 8 kms in Pangong Lake. This would be by far the largest loss of territory to China since the 1962 war. Is this observation correct?
  I have been warning since the beginning about the quite considerable loss of territory. I estimate that China's policy of what I have called incremental annexation has resulted in the loss of some 1,300 sq kms of Indian territory in the new millennium.
  
  Should the buck not stop with NSA Ajit Doval?
  Well, yes, because he is supposed to ingest all intel, field reports, military briefings, analyses and recommendations from the China Study Group, et al, and alight on policy options for the PM.
  
  You have said repeatedly that Indian intelligence knew about the Chinese build up for the last one year. More specifically, intelligence had told the army about Chinese movements in the LAC area, but the army took this to be normal spring time activity. Would you say this has been an operational lapse by the army?
  As I have already said, there's no excuse for XIV Corps Headquarters in Leh or army headquarters in Delhi and for the army misreading imagery intelligence transmitted to the Defence Intelligence Agency by DIPAC.



• “You must make Tibet a core issue”: By referring it as the India China border, India had ceded 2.5 million square kilometres and legitimized Chinese claim, he stressed. “Now in Doklam and Galwan Valley, what are you arguing about..one kilometre here, or two-kilometre…you have already conceded 2. 5 million square kilometres of land. You must take it back; say it is the Indo-Tibet border and it is disputed…You must make Tibet a core issue”.